Language Letter Campaign

Language matters. How we talk about our communities speaks to whether we believe in each other and each of our capacities to fulfill our potential. If we speak about someone as an offender or ex-offender, we are making the harmful assumption that only one experience or action defines that person. And we are accepting the idea that their experience or action was rooted only in their personal responsibility, without acknowledging or addressing all the other factors that contributed to why and how they ended up incarcerated in the first place.

Read more in our letter to partners and allies about why language matters and the changes we encourage everyone to make when we talk about each other: let's talk about each other as people, recognizing each person's humanity.